Ched Evans was, as we all recall, the footballer convicted of raping a woman. That conviction was quashed, his retrial led to a not guilty verdict. He is, of course, thus not guilty of the crime for which he spent two and a half years in jail.
This being rather more than just 2.5 years lost of a life. He’s a footballer, his lifetime earnings are concentrated into his 20s. Years and earnings he’ll never get back. That change to his life isn’t thus that 3 or 4% of it he spent in pokey, it’s some vast proportion of his entire lifetime earnings.
His lawyers are now coughing up some of that:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Ched Evans has agreed to a payout worth nearly £800,000 after suing the lawyers who defended him in his first rape trial. The Welsh footballer was convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman at a Premier Inn near Rhyl, North Wales, in 2011, serving two and a half years behind bars. However, his conviction was quashed in 2016 and he was found not guilty at a re-trial. [/perfectpullquote]The lawyers say:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]A spokesman for Brabners said: “We are glad that Ched Evans has agreed not to pursue this case, which we believe was entirely without merit. Brabners put forward a strong defence of Mr Evans claim following a thorough process and we were prepared to vigorously defend our handling of the case.”[/perfectpullquote]Is it’s all without merit then why the £800 large before a trial? The answer probably being that the insurers to Brabners don’t agree. They’re looking at this and thinking that Evans has them bang to rights. £800k being cheap to get rid of the problem.
And the thing is your insurers are probably a better judge of the merits of the case than the PR spokesman for the defendants.